CLAIM BY GERMANS.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 61, Issue 252, 6 August 1941, Page 6

CLAIM BY GERMANS.

SOVIET FORCES ENCIRCLE??, RUSSIANS REPORT CAPTURES, (Rec. 12.35 p.m.) LONDON, Aug. 5. A special. German communique states “German forces in the Smolensk enclo- / sure yesterday continued the annihilation of the encircled Soviet forces. Russian • troops, using some tanks, made a final desperate effort to break out, but. collapsed Wilder the German, fire. Enemy forces encircled and confined to a small area in the Ukraine failed in attempts to break through and were partly wiped out. “During an extension of our front 63 miles south-east from Smolensk, we carried out a surprise attack on a new formation of enemy forces and partly encircled and partly destroyed tliem.“ A Hungarian, communique says that Hungarian troops reached the River * Bug, and operations are proceeding according to plan. The .figures of prisoners and war material., featured is still growing. The Moscow radio, describing the V destruction of. tlie 253rd German Infantry. Division, stated that 2250 officers aiid men had been killed, while 24 field guns, 29 ‘mortars, 47 lorries, and 90 motor-cycles, also the division’s supply train, had been "captured. Five hundred Germans were killed during the rout Of the 111th Mechanised Regiment.